• by Wayne Friedman , March 30, 2007

On reality TV, successful aspirations are micro rather than macro. In short, it pays to be a good model, not to model good deeds.

An original "America's Next Top Model" by CW beat out ABC's second episode of "The Great American Dream Vote," an aspirational show where viewers get to make someone's dream come true. New reality show "Vote" fell to a Nielsen 1.5 rating/4 share among 18-49 viewers, from a 1.9/5 the week before. CW's "Top Model" grabbed a 2.5/7 among 18-49 viewers--and that's not even its main target audience, which is young women and men.

Worse, the winner of the 8 p.m. hour that "Vote" ran in didn't even score above a 4.0 rating. It was Fox's "Bones," which nabbed a 3.7/11. CW had a good night beating ABC in the 8 to 10 p.m. hours, and tying NBC with its run of "Friday Night Lights" and "Crossing Jordan" among 18-49 viewers. Again, that's not its main viewership.

For the night overall, it was Fox's "American Idol" that led the way, giving the network an easy 6.2/17 first-place win. "'Til Death" benefited from "Idol"'s lead-out, earning a nice-size 6.3/16 set of numbers.

ABC was a distant second, only saved later in the evening by "Lost" and its 5.1/14. It took in a 2.8/8 for the night. CBS was next with a 2.7/8--but it saved money on the night, only doing reruns of "Criminal Minds" and "CSI: NY." NBC was fourth with a 2.1/6, while CW earned a 1.9/5. Univision was right behind CW, with a 1.8/5. Way down the broadcast network race was MyNetworkTV, inching along with a 0.2/1.